Some recurring patterns on the show, regarding birth and death

[WarpTenLizard]

Tom Paris has fathered children with three out of "Voyager's" four female leads; each time, during an increasingly chaotic mission where Tom is piloting; and none of his children are fully-Human.

1. "Threshold:" Tom pilots himself and Janeway at Warp 10, resulting in an amphibious one-night-stand and three cute little salamanders.
2. "Before and After:" Kes gives birth to Linnis in a shuttlecraft, while Voyager is under attack by the Krenim. Presumably, Tom was piloting the shuttle.
3. "Endgame:" B'Elanna gives birth to Miral, while Tom is piloting Voyager through the wormhole home, as they're chased by a Borg sphere.

For a bonus adoption example, the dinosaur puppet in "Parturition" that Tom and Neelix become gay daddies for hatches while they're stranded on a planet.

On the topic of babies...

All children born to Voyager are born during a ship-wide crisis:

1. Naomi Wildman: Born, and died, while Voyager is being pummeled by the anomaly; other-Naomi is brought aboard as Vidiians are attacking the other Voyager, and saved just before that Voyager self destructs.
2. Linnis Paris: See above
3. Miral Paris: See above
4. The Borg Baby gets an emergency transport out of her pod while Voyager is locked in that stand-off with the Borgletts.

The only exception is Seska's baby, who was presumably born under "normal" circumstances. But of course, he turned out not to be Chakotay's son after all.

And the circimstances surrounding her birth aren't the only reason Miral Paris was lucky to be born at all. Because...

The universe has it in for B'Elanna Torres

Everyone jokes about Harry Kim dying multiple times, but how about poor B'Elanna? Especially in time-travel episodes! For those keeping count...

1. Half of B'Elanna dies in "Faces"
2. Half of that half dies in "Deadlock" (along with the rest of the crew). Less than 1/3 of the original B'Elanna even made it to confessing her love for Tom!
3. "Before and After:" B'Elanna dies (an insultingly cheap death) alongside Janeway, in order to angst out Tom and provide a flimsy reason for him to marry Kes. Thankfully even Kes herself decided P/T were the better pair, and saved B'Elanna by warning Janeway about the Krenim.
4. "Fury:" ...but Kes apparently changed her mind about that decision, very deliberately killing B'Elanna with the warp core (while giving her a hateful glare), just before going back in time to try killing B'Elanna again, along with the rest of the crew! Of course, Janeway, Tuvok and nice-Kes prevent this timeline from happening again.
5. "Course: Oblivion:" Not the real B'Elanna, and the entire fake crew did die eventually, but it's still odd that even B'Elanna's duplicate gets the big shocking death, before the grim realization sets in for the crew.
6. "Barge of the Dead:" No wonder B'Elanna wasn't afraid to try brain-death, and even promise permeant death, to save her mother's soul. Death clearly doesn't phase B'Elanna anymore.

And interestingly, we eventually learn that B'Elanna is to be the mother of a Klingon prophet. Makes one wonder if some supernatural forces were trying to prevent the birth of the Kuva'magh, "Terminator" style....

So, has anyone noticed any other interesting patterns like this? That is, besides the number 42, and the overdone snarks like, "I've noticed they never run out of shuttlecrafts!" or "I notice Seven's nanoprobes always save the day!"

 

[Oddish]

1. If we're to count Linnis Paris, we should also count Andrew Kim, who was born under peaceful circumstances.
2. If we're talking sheer death count, I think that Janeway's 17 deaths still lead the pack. Death is just afraid to come and collect her (last time, she told him to "go back to hell, coward").
3. On Trek, it's 47, not 42. Inflation, maybe?

 

[WarpTenLizard]

1. If we're to count Linnis Paris, we should also count Andrew Kim, who was born under peaceful circumstances.

Nuts, I forgot about that little twerp.

 

[Oddish]

It was interesting that the Ocampa lifespan was so genetically dominant. I would think that Linnis would probably live at least 20 years, and Andrew might be good for 40 or so.

Regarding shuttles, for most ships or stations (DS9 lost a few runabouts), it's not a big issue, just comm Starfleet and have one hauled/flown over from the nearest shipyard. It's only an oddity on Voyager, which was so short on energy at one point that Janeway couldn't even get a cuppa joe. I would think that for the energy cost of popping out one shuttlecraft, you could probably produce enough coffee to keep Janeway's caffeine buzz on for a century or two.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

It was interesting that the Ocampa lifespan was so genetically dominant. I would think that Linnis would probably live at least 20 years, and Andrew might be good for 40 or so.

I feel like Linnis and Andrew were able to age and grow quickly, but their lifespan would probably have been a few decades - maybe Linnis would be twenty, twenty-five, and Andrew would reach maybe his forties. Like we see with Alexander and Naomi, quick maturity is a common tendency for human-alien hybrids, so human childhood seems to be recessive. (Granted, I'm not about to try and explain purely human Molly O'Brien going from being born at the start of TNG season five and being three the following season on DS9...)

And yes, I know the production reason is that skipping past the stage of babies is generally easier to write for, and Linnis being an actual character who could be interacted with was more engaging for the episode's needs than having her have more of a young adult, a child.

Also, we wouldn't have the premise for the Delta Quadrant's best sitcom never produced, "My Best Friend, My Son In Law," featuring Tom Paris and Harry Kim.

 

[Oddish]

Also, we wouldn't have the premise for the Delta Quadrant's best sitcom never produced, "My Best Friend, My Son In Law," featuring Tom Paris and Harry Kim.

One advantage of compressing "Before and After" into one episode is that it reduces the awkwardness of that development.

 

[Timo]

It was interesting that the Ocampa lifespan was so genetically dominant. I would think that Linnis would probably live at least 20 years, and Andrew might be good for 40 or so.

Might be the short lifespan was forcibly engineered into the Ocampa by the Caretaker during his reign, to better facilitate lording over them. UFP medicine might help with some things, but would have to bow to its superior counterpart here.

Regarding shuttles, for most ships or stations (DS9 lost a few runabouts), it's not a big issue, just comm Starfleet and have one hauled/flown over from the nearest shipyard. It's only an oddity on Voyager, which was so short on energy at one point that Janeway couldn't even get a cuppa joe. I would think that for the energy cost of popping out one shuttlecraft, you could probably produce enough coffee to keep Janeway's caffeine buzz on for a century or two.

So the replicator problems vis-á-vis simple beverages and the like might be more a hardware failure than an energy shortage, after the initial few episodes anwyay. Cobbling together a shuttlecraft without full replicator capabilities would be easier going that cobbling together a deciliter of coffee, being the more macroscopic of the tasks and all.

The ship was never really short on energy as such: she could go FTL at will whenever the engines weren't explicitly broken, sabotaged, or ruined in a harebrained experiment. One minute at warp two really should equal Janeway's total coffee consumption for the projected 75-year voyage.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Might be the short lifespan was forcibly engineered into the Ocampa by the Caretaker during his reign, to better facilitate lording over them. UFP medicine might help with some things, but would have to bow to its superior counterpart here.

I've come to think of it as more of a consequence of the Ocampan stagnation, the same sort of thing that has led to the Ocampa telepathic abilities having dwindled as they remain in the underground compound. Because it's very clear that the Ocampa have been suffering SOME sort of stagnation under the Caretaker - the civilization lives underground and gets one period of childbearing, we know that Suspiria's collection of Ocampa are able to live longer (Tanis is 14, and seems still well off from his morilogium), as well as are more potent users of their telepathic abilities.

The Ocampa have been stagnating - more than that, declining - since the Caretaker's interference, and I genuinely believe that this is SOMETHING to do with that "debt that can never be repaid." But I don't think it was something he imposed on them, I think it is something that was a side effect of his "help."

 

[Timo]

...and gets one period of childbearing

A hobby-horse of mine: one chance at choosing childbearing, after which there is no further mandatory checkpoint on whether to have more kids. If you say no the first time, you say no for good. If you say yes, you get to have multiple kids if you so wish, and thus Kes has an "uncle", for the human value of the word.

That's what "Elogium" literally says, regardless of writer intent. It's reverse virginity of sorts, the ability to say no exactly once, and for good. And it might be a natural part of being Ocampa, rather than decline or meddling: there are many benefits to a species having dedicated non-procreators. Mankind just has fancy and destructive hangups in that respect.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deks]

Regarding shuttles, for most ships or stations (DS9 lost a few runabouts), it's not a big issue, just comm Starfleet and have one hauled/flown over from the nearest shipyard. It's only an oddity on Voyager, which was so short on energy at one point that Janeway couldn't even get a cuppa joe. I would think that for the energy cost of popping out one shuttlecraft, you could probably produce enough coffee to keep Janeway's caffeine buzz on for a century or two.

Replicating ship replacement parts and shuttles probably takes priority over coffee and Janeway knew that. Its not that they didn't have energy to replicate stuff... the problem was likely down to no immediate access to fresh sources of anti-matter within range (seeing how it was unexplored space and far away from UFP or friendly support), so energy conservation measures were instilled where replication was probably reserved primarily for ship parts etc... and the crew made by with aeroponics in regards to food.

Besides, the crew likely salvaged crashed shuttles (at least the ones they could get to, because in various episodes, crashed shuttles were in fact retrievable) off screen and harvested raw materials (again, largely off-screen) which they converted to necessary bits (or to energy) to build new shuttles, spare parts, torpedoes, etc..

Probably the same happened with torpedoes - they either found more sources of omicron particles to augment their anti-matter reserves (after 'The Cloud') or traded with friendly species for anti-matter... or stopped in an uninhabited solar system and used solar energy to power replicators and/or make more anti-matter (Torres was able to create a crude dilithium refinery aboard by using the impulse reactor... it shouldn't be too huge of a leap to do something similar for production of anti-matter in just enough quantities which would allow the crew to make more photon torpedoes on the go over time - the parts for those things are relatively easily made by 24th century... main thing would be creating the antimatter to give them the punch they need - so for situations where they didn't meet too many friendlies, VOY was mostly relying on self-sufficiency which technically all SF ships are capable of when you think about all the technology we saw - and heck, even 23rd century ships wouldn't HAVE to rely on drydocks etc., its just its faster and more convenient to have those facilities which have needed stuff ready to be used on ships).

 

[Oddish]

Replicating ship replacement parts and shuttles probably takes priority over coffee and Janeway knew that. Its not that they didn't have energy to replicate stuff... it was probably the problem of no immediate fresh sources of anti-matter within range, so energy conservation measures were instilled where replication was probably reserved primarily for ship parts etc... and the crew made by with aeroponics in regards to food.

Besides, the crew likely salvaged crashed shuttles (at least the ones they could get to) off screen and harvested raw materials (again, largely off-screen) which they converted to necessary bits (or to energy) to build new shuttles, spare parts, torpedoes, etc..

Probably the same happened with torpedoes - they either found more sources of omicron particles to augment their anti-matter reserves (after 'The Cloud') or traded with friendly species for anti-matter... or stopped in an uninhabited solar system and used solar energy to power replicators and/or make more anti-matter (Torres was able to create a crude dilithium refinery aboard by using the impulse reactor... it shouldn't be too huge of a leap to do something similar for production of anti-matter in just enough quantities which would allow the crew to make more photon torpedoes over time - the parts for those things are relatively easily made by the 24th century... main issue would be making the antimatter to give them the punch they need).

Your explanation is admittedly quite plausible. However, would it have been too much to ask for them to provide an in-show explanation? Have Harry discuss how he was up late processing the shuttle wreckage. Have Tuvok mention that thanks to Voyager's trade for antimatter, his people had replenished Voyager's torpedo magazines. Have Janeway mention in a captain's log that she no longer has to worry about her morning cuppa Joe.

As I say in another topic, there are so many issues that could have been satisfactorily laid to rest with just a snippet of added dialogue.

 

[Deks]

Your explanation is admittedly quite plausible. However, would it have been too much to ask for them to provide an in-show explanation? Have Harry discuss how he was up late processing the shuttle wreckage. Have Tuvok mention that thanks to Voyager's trade for antimatter, his people had replenished Voyager's torpedo magazines. Have Janeway mention in a captain's log that she no longer has to worry about her morning cuppa Joe.

As I say in another topic, there are so many issues that could have been satisfactorily laid to rest with just a snippet of added dialogue.

I know what you're saying and I said the same thing.
But, we HAVE seen that the crew went looking for general resources and alternative energy sources in a few episodes over the course of the series... so, I think the producers and writers may have thought these snippet explanations wouldn't be needed (or they just didn't care due to the episodic nature of the show)... but to be fair, most people who watch Trek frequently overlook just what UFP technology is capable of when properly used (as is evident from so many people complaining that Voyager seemingly had endless supply of shuttles and torpedoes - both of which are easily explainable and well within the capabilities of VOY to replace)... so yes, a few snippets of dialogue actually explaining how the ship was repairing itself via say automated bots, replenished torpedoes and repaired or constructed new shuttles in between episodes and other details would have been nice.

The writers were never good at making full use of UFP technology or specifically paying attention to detail and using this for contiuity.
In fact, they went through some incredibly stupid efforts to intentionally 'downplay' it (or dumb it down) for the sake of 'drama' (throughout all series)... as opposed to making a good story that FITS with the advanced technology we actually saw.

I wouldn't have minded to see VOY in early seasons making one or two stops per season in uninhabited star systems for repairs and replenishment of actual resources (and succeeding at doing so - it would have been nice to see the crew experiment more with technology at their disposal and adapt it for the potentially long voyage they had).

 

[Oddish]

Yes. Because one minute, you can't even get a decent bowl of tomato soup. Four years later, the ship is churning out better shuttlecraft than Starfleet can produce. I think a little explanation would be in order.

 

[Timo]

Well, the ship was smashed to pieces. And then repaired, over time. Wouldn't this be our default assumption without any verbalizing?

I wouldn't blame an energy shortage directly on lack of antimatter, or recovery from it on acquisition of said. After all, every attempt at solving this specific problem specifically did not involve antimatter! Say, the omicron particles "The Cloud" were not supposed to be a substitute for antimatter - they were a means of getting more antimatter, aka "an additional antimatter reserve".

Apparently the ship indeed has a doodad aboard for creating antimatter. It just needs energy in order to run. And the energy can be derived from omicron particles, or (perhaps less quickly or efficiently) from deuterium, or (although never explicated) from pedaling real hard. It then gets stored in antimatter, which is what the warp engine ingests. But the adventures never get to the point where the antimatter itself would be running out - that is, Janeway never has to mind her warp engine usage even when worrying about the next cup of coffee. Not until "Demon"...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deks]

Yes. Because one minute, you can't even get a decent bowl of tomato soup. Four years later, the ship is churning out better shuttlecraft than Starfleet can produce. I think a little explanation would be in order.

Well, that one is actually not a big deal to reconcile. By their 4th year in the D.Q, the crew got pretty good at energy conservation and finding new ways to get what they needed.
Also, they had more than a few encounters with friendly species by then, so it makes sense that replicating meals would have been more commonplace by then than it was in the first 2 seasons.

Again though, simple snippets of info injected into the dialogue would have easily addressed this and would have taken what.. all of 15 to 30 secons?

 

[Deks]

Well, the ship was smashed to pieces. And then repaired, over time. Wouldn't this be our default assumption without any verbalizing?

I wouldn't blame an energy shortage directly on lack of antimatter, or recovery from it on acquisition of said. After all, every attempt at solving this specific problem specifically did not involve antimatter! Say, the omicron particles "The Cloud" were not supposed to be a substitute for antimatter - they were a means of getting more antimatter, aka "an additional antimatter reserve".

Apparently the ship indeed has a doodad aboard for creating antimatter. It just needs energy in order to run. And the energy can be derived from omicron particles, or (perhaps less quickly or efficiently) from deuterium, or (although never explicated) from pedaling real hard. It then gets stored in antimatter, which is what the warp engine ingests. But the adventures never get to the point where the antimatter itself would be running out - that is, Janeway never has to mind her warp engine usage even when worrying about the next cup of coffee. Not until "Demon"...

Timo Saloniemi

In fairness, Janeway did mention in the early seasons to one of alien dignitaries who got a tour of the ship that the Warp core can go on for 3 years before refilling... it stands to reason the crew was able to either augment their anti-matter reserves themselves, or traded for it, or both. And with the crew implementing energy conservation technologies from the Enarans and likely from other species (I remember that by the 7th season 'the Void', they got the technology which trippled replicator efficiency for example, allowing the crew to replicate food for 500 people using half the power it took them days ago - and the void was draining power from ships at an accelerated rate), they probably improved that original projection of '3 years before refilling' to maybe 4 years or more.

'Demon' was a separate problem with deuterium... which seemed like a really bad thing for the writers to make into an issue because its supposed to be very common and found anywhere - but hey, its the D.Q. and the ship wasn't really anywhere near anything (I would have preferred if the Warp core was dangerously low on anti-matter and had to be refilled - so the Demon planet could have been abundant in say omicron particles or crucial substance that makes production of antimatter in large amounts relatively easy and fast)... plus, the Enterprise-D never had issues with Deuterium... though, it also hadn't spent most of its time Warping through thousands of Lightyears, so we could say that Voyager basically went through 5 years (or more) worth of Deuterium in just about 4 years due to being at Warp all the time and higher energy requirements for all repairs it had to do over the years without access to space docks.

Come to think of it, Starfleet usually prepares ships for 5 year missions... and Ent-D had access to a number of UFP worlds or friendly systems which also had access to Deuterium (or was fairly abundant)... so not exactly the same comparison (especially because Voyager launched with a 2 week mission in mind - which also explains low number of torpedoes and general resources).
Had it been launched with a 5 year mission in mind, it probably would have had less resource problems - although I'm sure a good story would have in that case been devised to make the impact on the ship to be 'heavier'.

 

[Oddish]

Again though, simple snippets of info injected into the dialogue would have easily addressed this and would have taken what.. all of 15 to 30 secons?

That's basically my point. So many issues could have been fixed so easily.

 

[Deks]

That's basically my point. So many issues could have been fixed so easily.

Yes, but VOY is hardly the only culprit for this... all other Trek series have similar problems which a few simple lines injected during episodes could have fixed.
What puzzles me more is that Trek has a 'team' of writers, and somehow they end up making these (and many more) mistakes throughout all series.
You'd think quality control for something like Trek would have improved by now. Its actually interesting that Trek animated series appear to be better at maintaining and acknowledging details from past series.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

It's more visible on Voyager, though - Voyager, as a series, was sold on the idea that they'd be too far from Starbases and standard supplies. Early episodes brought up things like the limited number of photon torpedoes and their irreplaceable nature... And then we have the torpedo count exceeding that number.

Yes, they may have traded for these supplies along the way, but if the issue was important enough to bring up, it SHOULD have been important enough to resolve on screen. Instead, we're left to come up with explanations on our own. It's not that we couldn't come up with these explanations on our own, but the show made these things seem like they were important enough to bring up and acknowledge... But not actually resolve for the audience to see.